Kevin Pietersen 30/10/2014 10:31 Page 1
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Kevin Pietersen 30/10/2014 10:31 Page 1 1 Fred here’s an old joke about a mother watching a column of Tsoldiers pass by. Her son is in the ranks. All those men out of step, she says, except our Fred. I don’t know if my mum ever thinks something similar, but I do know that if I was in the trenches I’d want Fred at my side. I don’t march in step. I don’t ask people to trample all over me just because it might make them feel better. That’s not who I am. Those qualities (or flaws, if that’s your view) have brought me many good things in life. And lots of trouble. Fred doesn’t try to march out of step. He just follows a different drummer. I don’t set out to go against the flow. I don’t 1 Kevin Pietersen 30/10/2014 10:31 Page 2 KP: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY enjoy trouble. Like most people, I want to be happy. If I don’t understand you, though, and I don’t see the logic of what you tell me to do, then I am going to ask you questions. I won’t sit down and be told to bat this way or train that way without asking why. I have one career. One shot. I have to make the most of whatever talent I have. If I do that, it’s good for your team. Our team. If all the guys around me do that, it’s great for your team. Our team. But if all you want is to see your team marching in step, if you are just trying to impress the generals above you, I will call you on that. A Monday in February 2014, and I am walking into the Danubius Hotel right by Lord’s, to meet with the three wise men. Alastair Cook will be there. James Whitaker, the chairman of selectors, will be there. And Paul Downton will be there. He is the brand-new managing director of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). He’s hardly been a wet day in the job. The three wise men have decided that the disastrous Ashes tour was all my fault. Take me out of the picture and all will be good again. I know what’s coming. I only met Paul Downton properly a few days ago. I had previously discussed the tour with Angus Porter, chief executive of the Professional Cricketers’ Association, and we had decided that Downton would be the next stop. I had to Google him to discover his background: international, but not world class. I hoped that as an administrator he would be better. 2 Kevin Pietersen 30/10/2014 10:31 Page 3 Fred I called Downton up and said that I thought we should meet. There would have to be debriefings after all that had happened in Australia, and as a senior player I felt the need to be in that loop. He said okay, so I arranged to see him in the ECB offices. On the morning of the meeting he texted me to say that James Whitaker would be sitting in. I had a little history with Whitaker but I said, okay, no worries. But I did have worries about Whitaker. In August 2013, during the Old Trafford Test against the Australians, my family and Jonathan Trott’s parents were sitting together at a table in the players’ family enclosure. There was one other person at the table. An older man. Leading up to that Test I had torn my calf, but the rehab had gone well and the day before I’d pronounced myself fit. It had been between me and James Taylor. I was fully recovered, though. I was fine. I got picked and scored a hundred. All good. Mum, Dad and the Trotts were sitting there, chatting away with their strong South African accents, and this older man was just hammering me. My century – which had saved the match – hadn’t gone down well. They all just nodded. They sat and they listened. Exchanged glances. Let’s not get defensive, don’t make a scene. But the man didn’t stop after one or two stabs in my back; he didn’t seem to notice how uncomfortable his audience were. After a while they asked the man what brought him to Old Trafford. James Whitaker had given him the tickets. 3 Kevin Pietersen 30/10/2014 10:31 Page 4 KP: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY Aha. So it was reasonable to suggest that Whitaker might agree with what he was spouting. My parents told me all this the next day. We wondered about the arrogance – or stupidity – of somebody sitting in the players’ family enclosure with four middle-aged people with strong South African accents and feeling free to run down a player who was most likely the son of one or other of the couples. A few days later, James Whitaker was behind my net while I was training. I asked for a quick word, and told him that my parents had had an awkward and embarrassing experience with somebody he had given tickets to. I said that I would really appreciate it if he could apologise to them, or if the man he gave the ticket to would apologise. Whitaker mumbled something about the man, how he’d done this and that. Very interesting, I said, because a lot of the views he was expressing at the table sounded like they might have come from you. Was it really right for him to come out with that sort of thing when he was sitting at a table with the parents of two players? Things have been frosty between us ever since. And now James Whitaker would be sitting in on my meeting with Paul Downton. I went anyway. Turned up on time. Downton asked me to tell him about the tour to Australia. We had brought the Ashes with us, having won them in the summer of 2013, and we left them behind. Whitewashed. Five–nil. I gave Downton my views on how that happened. How honest was I? Really honest. Brutally honest. I didn’t 4 Kevin Pietersen 30/10/2014 10:31 Page 5 Fred want to tell him a story that might help or protect me. I wanted to tell him the truth. I knew there were stories being told against me, so I had said to myself when I asked for the meeting that I would tell the guy everything. Whatever happened afterwards, I would be able to look him in the eye. I wanted to speak to Downton about my relationship with Andy Flower, the team director, which had been a huge issue. It had been played out in the media and refreshed day after day with a steady stream of leaks. With that in mind, I said to Downton, let’s make sure that the discussion we are having here doesn’t leave these four walls. He seemed offended by the very thought. How dare I even suggest such a thing? Aw, none of that, I said. I’ve been in meetings and the next day I’ll read a version in the media. Then we talked about the tour. Look, I said, I didn’t bat as well as I could. I did okay. I had averaged 29 in the Test series. I’d got past fifty just twice in ten innings. I’d carried a knee injury and lived through various problems off the field, but I was disappointed with the numbers. Still, I was the team’s leading run-scorer on 294. Downton said he had seen the way I had played – I hadn’t batted well. Careless. Really? I looked at him, my mouth hanging open. I didn’t mind that Paul Downton, according to Google, was a lower- middle-order batsman with a Test average of under 20. But I did mind that as an administrative employee of the ECB he felt free to critique the performances of players, indeed that he had a right to do so. 5 Kevin Pietersen 30/10/2014 10:31 Page 6 KP: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY Sorry? Are you my batting coach? I have scored over thirteen thousand runs for England, I said. Do you think I am proud of the way I got out sometimes? No, of course not. But I must have been doing something right to score all those runs. Did you see me bat in Melbourne? No, he was flying. He was ‘in the air’. Interesting. No, he went on, but he saw the way I got out. Reckless. I just said, wow. Two thoughts entered my head. One, Downton was possibly trying to wind me up so that we would have a bad meeting in front of Whitaker and he could use that later. So I stayed polite, careful in what I said. Second possibility: I am interviewing for my own job here. I have played 104 Tests and now I am interviewing for my job. Next question from Downton: where do you see yourself in the future? I would love to get ten thousand Test runs, and I still think I can offer that. I want to pursue that dream. Hmm, he said, I would have preferred you to have said, I would like to help England win matches. If I score ten thousand runs the way I am batting, England will win matches. Well, he said, I still would have preferred you to have said the other thing.